SemiNotTV: Radio giant leaves former name behind...

[Bob Jersey]

...in favor of the brand name by which they'd prefer everybody know them anyway.

Farewell Clear Channel, hello IHeart Media.

Billboard (link)

B

[M-D November]

Can we all agree that "iHeart Media" is a stupid, stupid name?

[Mark Jeffries]

But at least it isn't Clear Channel, which is probably all Pittman really cares about.

Mark Jeffries
Saints Spotlight Editor
spotl...@gmail.com

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[JW]

> Can we all agree that "iHeart Media" is a stupid, stupid name?

Absolutely. But at least, "clear channel" can once again be used to refer to the 50,000 watt AM behemoths that nobody listens to anymore.

[Doug Eastick]

agreed.  I like music fests and things... and when I heard Seacrest pumping an iHeart music festival in Las Vegas I was wondering WTF is iHeart?. 

 

I wonder what goes on in those corporate Branding meetings.

 

On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 5:35 AM, JW <redb...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Can we all agree that "iHeart Media" is a stupid, stupid name?

Absolutely. But at least, "clear channel" can once again be used to refer to the 50,000 watt AM behemoths that nobody listens to anymore.

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[Joe Hass]

Quick answer: iHeart was what they used for their radio station app. I'm guessing it went so well, they just co-opted it (like Coke taking the formula for Diet Coke and adding sugar to make New Coke).

Having worked in Adland, given the choice of spending an afternoon in a slaughterhouse or an afternoon in a branding meeting, always, *always* take the slaughterhouse. At least you'll see something productive being done.

[Tom Wolper]

On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 10:40 AM, Joe Hass <hassg...@gmail.com> wrote:

Quick answer: iHeart was what they used for their radio station app. I'm guessing it went so well, they just co-opted it (like Coke taking the formula for Diet Coke and adding sugar to make New Coke).

Having worked in Adland, given the choice of spending an afternoon in a slaughterhouse or an afternoon in a branding meeting, always, *always* take the slaughterhouse. At least you'll see something productive being done.

There is a bigger picture here, too. Legacy media companies slowly developed digital teams to use the internet as an added way to reach audiences. As time goes by, the audience size of the legacy platform (like newspapers and AM radio) ages and shrinks and the legacy company turns its attention and budget to building up its digital capacity.

In the way that the newspaper giants Gannett, Belo, and Tribune recently announced that they were spinning off and selling their newspaper divisions, we can expect IHeart media to announce in a few years that they will be spinning off their radio station division.

[Mark Jeffries]

And I really think that there was the realization that the "Clear Channel" brand name had become poisoned (in their view) by too many press and Internet message board references to voice-tracking, syndicated programming, alleged homogenized playlists and mass firings--At the turn of the millennium, Clear Channel stations were saying "A Clear Channel Worldwide station" in their legal IDs and then stopped doing it (ever since iheartradio.com went live, they now say "An IHeartRadio station" in their legal IDs).

Of course, despite the fact that CC/IHM has always been a media whipping boy, their stations--or at least some of their stations--are among the most successful in their markets.  I personally don't care for most of their stations, but I tend to have that problem with most radio today anyway and it could be because I'm out of the demo.  And it wasn't Lowry Mays or Randy Michaels who first misinterpreted Bill Drake and thought that muzzling DJ personality and cutting playlists farther to the bone than Drake's Boss 30 was implementing his philosophy.  People have been bitching about radio for decades.  The only difference is now instead of just being the highbrows complaining about overcommercialism or the "free form" rock types, it's anyone who actually wants to listen to radio stations instead of leave them on in the background.  The truth is that except for public radio or almost any talk format, radio is a background medium--and that includes the streamers like Pandora.

Mark Jeffries
Saints Spotlight Editor
spotl...@gmail.com

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